Black Barbie sells for 1/2 price of white Barbie at Wal-Mart

That's disgusting. Racist economics go hand in glove with racist health care and racist penal systems in that country.

Uh if it's cheaper won't it likely sell more?  More kids with black Barbies? The horror.  The people at Mother Jones wish it was more expensive. But why? They're toys not real people. 

I think Criterion Collection Foreign Dvds should be the same price as old Jim Carey Dvds at HMV but those xenophobic corporate bastards don't think the non-english speaking fictional characters are the equal of a washed up comedian playing a fictional character.  Or I would think that if I made up my own reasons for why two similar products are different prices.

Does that price apply to THIS culturally sensitive item?

http://www.authentichistory.com/diversity/african/children/2001_Oreo_Bar...

(edited...realized somebody had beaten me to the "3/5ths" joke)

my internet browser said the page you linked to is forbidden for some reason

If you care to explain your own opinion with your own words, I'll take it seriously.

It was a reference to a doll called...I kid you not..."OREO BARBIE".

You are aware, I assume, of what the term "oreo" means in North American black communities.

Well, as long as the Barbie doesn't have to sit in the back of the toybox...

A follow up blog entry is here:

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal [9] says it's just a doll and that paint or plastic colour is different from skin colour so what does this have to do with race at all?:

I love it.  The lower price of the darker-skinned Barbie is evidence that darker skin isn't valued.

If, instead, the darker-skinned Barbie were the one that's twice the price, that would be evidence of Wal Mart trying to coerce shoppers to purchase the lighter-skinned Barbie instead of the darker one.

Either way, something for people to get angry about!

Seriously...Does WalMart care about anything other than moving product and the bottom line?

Should we be shocked that this low life company stoops to these levels???

This is outrageous!! And the grocery store I shop at was selling their brown bananas at one tenth the price of their pretty yellow ones.  This type of corporate behavior needs to be outlawed.

Ya just like in Africa. Millions infected with diseases can't afford expensive AIDS and other drugs produced in the west, therefore market demand is low in those countries. Or because one billion chronically hungry people in thirdworld capitalist hellholes can't afford to eat, "the market" simply ignores demand where it exists. It's as if theyre doing economic theory by hjalmar schacht and mont pelerin fascists.

Or black parents find the bizarre body image represented by Barbie outrageous and thus don't buy these dolls for their kids, hence there's little demand, therefore a lower cost.

It's science.

Hey Snert? Do you suppose Walmart sells black shoes for less than a white ones? Assuming they're both the same brand, size, style, etc etc. Hey, let's check it out!

http://walmart.ca/Canada-Women.jsp?tabId=10&departmentId=24&selection=Listing&categoryId=1163 

Nope, guess they don't. Then why with racist dolls?

Or it could be that white parents are more family oriented and spend more on children than black families who no doubt have more than enough money because they live in a democracy and are just being scrooges with their kids. Black people are mean with their children.

It's very scientific.

If there's a limited demand for one of the two colours of shoe, there's a pretty good chance that WalMart would, in fact, sell it for less.

Also, these dolls aren't "the same".  One is Barbie, the other is Theresa.  Barbie is kind of a flagship product.  Ken, Skipper, and all the other figurines from the Barbie-verse, not so much.

But let me ask you, would selling Theresa for twice the price of Barbie be less racist, in your opinion?  Sure, having them the same price would be OK too, but let's remember that they're dolls, not people, so it shouldn't be unreasonable for WalMart, or for that matter, Mattel, to price two different dolls differently.  But what if Theresa is double the price of Barbie?  Would that strike a blow against racism?

I think plastic barbies are all produced at the same per unit cost. Walmart is just another big, slow-moving capitalist model for central planning whose racist pricing schemes haven't registered with head office yet. Not unless someone points out their racism, or it costs them customers, will they do anything about it.

How about we stop drilling for oil to make more of this plastic crap.  Oh I forgot, the "free market" demands this plastic crap be made otherwise we wouldn't have a democracy.  Our landfills are full of crap no one really wanted until it was given away at below cost.  

The "demand" for plastic Barbies and Theresas is killing the planet but hey pass me a fiddle I've always wanted to learn to play one.

It's obvious this is a racist plot by Walmart to try and sell more black Barbies.  We all know little kids judge their toys by how much they cost at the time their parents purchased them.  i just asked a 6 year old how much her doll cost and she said "I think Fifty-Hundred!" So there you go.

Ahhhh, so the OP is incorrect. Black "Barbies" aren't being sold for half the white ones. Then what the fuck is this whole thread about then?!

it's about people trying to create controversy

I agree with Krop though - we should go back to making everything from wood, stones, and twine *

* Natural fibres used for making twine include cotton [23], sisal [24], jute [25], hemp [26], henequen [27], and coir [28]

Good question.

It's about how capitalists equate people with plastic widgets and discriminate according to bs capitalist drivers of economy referred to sometimes as supply and demand based on a general equilibrium model for economy reflective of nothing of importance in the real world today.

Ahhhh, so the OP is incorrect. Black "Barbies" aren't being sold for half the white ones. Then what the fuck is this whole thread about then?!

That a good number of us are at least happy that Walmart has yet to sell a Klaus Barbie doll?

Where can one find brown-toned band-aids?

Seriously, different stores practise discriminatory pricing.  Supermarkets will sell fresh healthy foods at higher prices in poor neighbourhoods than in richer ones.  Men and women pay different prices for essentially the same products.

The idea that the pricing of the items had any idealogical or political motivation is so stupid that the whole article is a put on.

Do you know that Hamilton, Ontario band, the Dik Van Dykes?  They had a song called Klaus Barbie Doll.

On second thought, maybe we are too hard on WalMart. They're not so bad. I heart capitalism. It's not really a monstrous ideology. We should lobby our stooges in Ottawa to declare a national capitalism appreciation day.

I dunno, the fake bake tanning beds are booming in my town!

Gee, when have capitalists ever raised prices in times of low demand in order to make up for lost profit? Like that never happens. And I'll bet the dolls are still cheaper in US stores than here, no thanks to our stooges signing the stupidest trade deals in history with racist corporate America.

I just went to hell today with my friend in Toronto.  Hell looks a lot like Wal-mart.

I went to the toy section and looked at the Barbie dolls.  Fortunately, I did not see any discrimatory pricing.  Then again, I only saw one ten dollar brownish (non-African) Barbie and a 25 dollar black Barbie with an afro which was part of the exclusive line.  The rest of the Barbies (and Kens) were white.  I looked at other dolls (big and small).  Practically all of them were white although I think one of them was blue.  No, it was not Smurfette.

When I saw the packaging on the other toys, I saw images of white kids.  If they weren't white, they looked half-white and were included in a group of white boys and girls.

Thankfully, the Walmart that I went to had two non-white Barbie dolls for sale and a bluish doll that is not Smurfette.  Thankfully, I didn't buy anything in hell today.

Wow Skinny - and if you went to a mall in Tokyo you would probably find the majority of advertising has asian looking people on it!  Shocking!

Okay can we be done with this guy soon? Really.

why not deal with the topic at hand instead of trying to be a gatekeeper?

Skinny Dipper makes a silly observation and I respond in kind.  What's your issue?

No VGE, your observation is silly.  In case you weren't aware Toronto is almost 50% visible minority.

Secondly, this is the anti-racism forum, when someone points out the marketing almost solely though a white-centric lense and you respond with a flippant remark, you shouldn't post on these issues.

Thanks for your understanding, RevolutionPlease.

Other than my hellish comment about Wal-mart, I tried to be as factual about what I saw in the toy section.  I did not suggest that Wal-mart and the toy manufactures were good or bad in their representation of objects and images.  I prefer to let the readers decide.  Does Wal-mart serve the community well?  Who can we blame for the lack of non-white dolls and other toys?  Wal-mart? The toy manufacturers? Or both?  I won't be completely negative about Wal-mart.  One of its stores in Markham has bilingual department signs posted in English and Chinese.  It probably doesn't have any Chinese Barbie dolls.  I didn't go to the Markham Wal-Mart today.

We read about Canada becoming more diverse.  Just yesterday, I read in one of the online newspapers that Brandon, Manitoba has gained an influx of Mexicans, Chinese, Ukrainians, and others to work at the Maple Leaf meat packing plant.  It's no longer the big inner cities of Canada that are diverse.  Even small towns are becoming more diverse.  a Little Mosque on the Prairie town may not be far-fetched in the future.

Ok - I'm Sorry

I take issues of racism very seriously and I admit I didn't take the topic of this thread seriously.  Prior to this discussion I had no idea that plastic inanimate objects could experience racism.

I'll return to the forum with only serious observations.  Thanks for your understanding.

You're pretty dense huh? Not only dense but a certified troll.

Troll Begone!

We have that already. It's called Christmas. 

You missed by one day. Christmas is drowning in consumerism, but it has a greater heritage, and some positive religious and family currents.

Boxing Day, though - now THERE'S an unrestrained capitalist orgy with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Oh racism! So funny...hahahaha, what a great thread!  3/5th, oh that's rich!

Okay Maysie got me good on that one. Doh!

what's racist about it?  I seriously don't get it.  and Stargazer - you come in here and don't add a single thing to the conversation, but I'm the troll?

Stargazer has written thousand of good posts.

You?

*******

Personally, I think the barbie sale is just an automated computer software response from their consumer models. It's what the sale represents, it's another sign of racism. The black dolls are simply less desirable to the kids or to the parents due to our racial society, hence they're being liquidated. There's a lot of research on how kids respond to black dolls vs white dolls. For example, when asked which one is the evil one, they'll say the black doll, even black kids do this.

There's a third option that you don't consider: Charging the same price.

Stargazer, please leave the judgement about banning people up to us. You have our email address if you think there's a problem.  VGE is only one of a handful of posters who are offering flippant comments.

VGE, I'm going to suggest that your ideas about racism and oppression are under evolved.  That's not an evil thing of itself as long as you have some awareness of it.

This thread actually deals with important subject matter, but is on the verge of becoming kinda stupid.

This thread started stupid.

C'mon comrades, it's Wal-mart!  Some bean-counting computer programme and its attendant human unit monitored sales of "Doll X" and found sales weren't where they should have been, and so the price was changed.

How about putting the product that's not moving on sale?  Ooooops.  That's what they did.

It seems that charging the same price resulted in them selling more white Barbies than black ones.  That's a function of their customer base, not of WalMart's pricing.

For gawd's sake not all white barbies are the same price, and this  is "barbies' we are speaking about.

Why are we not discussing why they were costumed in differing colours, as  opposed to the "roll back" price?

There's a very revelatory story on this subject on a This American Life episode from 2008. Basically, an upscale New York department store has a very desirable Christmas toy: a realistic-looking baby which you "adopt" from a "nursery" run by actors hired by the store. It's obviously a very expensive and very bourgeois process/product. Because of an MTV show, the babies--which come in white, Latino, Asian and Black, start to sellout before Christmas. By December, they have a nursery full of black babies and one "deformed" white baby not for sale. Of course, the upper class parents buying these dolls (aka Whites) don't want to buy black babies for their white children, but have the class not to ask literally. "Do you have any other babies? You know, babies that look more like my Suzie?" I highly recommend listening to it.

Anyway, the import of the OP is quite obvious: we live in a capitalist society which reifies human relations and values them as if they were commodities. Secondly, we live in a white-supremacist society which values whites more than POCs. Hence, WalMart, the emblem of both these aspects of our culture, sees no problem in charging less for the black doll. Indeed, it makes perfect, logical sense.

So what exactly should they have done?  They're stuck with a product that for whatever reason isn't selling.  There don't seem to be a lot of options.  Reduce the price on the product that they can't move or trash it (I'm sure the manufacturer won't take it back).  But the second option strikes me as being more offensive than the first.

This thread has jumped the shark!

I don't really care what WalMart does. I don't want them selling Barbie dolls at all--white or black. I certainly don't think that this is an anti-racist "teaching moment" for a capitalist juggernaut. Probably the mistake was offering the black doll in the first place, but only from a marketing perspective. It was a terrible mistake that could have easily been avoided through proper focus group research: Black consumers don't buy black Barbie dolls, and this mistake could lead only to bad publicity and capital tied up in excess stock.

What should they have done? Unionized. Localized. Refused to sell products made in sweat shops. Rejected the big-box model. Not open new stores over Aztec burial grounds. Quit while they were ahead. Opened a small, organic subsistence farm and brew pub. Made popcorn. Learned to ski. Loved. Hoped. Dreamed. Voted Nader.

Oh Catchfire. 

Dude.

Thanks. For everything you are.   

Back at you, Maysie.

I noted the possibility of that in my second post. But seriously. They're DOLLS. They're not little humans. They should have to be priced identically why? I ask this seriously: can you explain, in a few sentences, why retailers should need to sell brown coloured dolls and pink coloured dolls for exactly the same price?

Sweet Mother of God.

Snert, I'm gonna hold my breath until you take that back. Seriously.

I'm closing this, which should have been done awhile ago.

Why? Because when Slumberjack invokes the name of the virgin Mary I know that something's gone horribly wrong.